Love Island's Zara McDermott opens up about sexual assault

Zara McDermott is fronting a BBC Three documentary exploring rape culture

A former Love Island contestant said she has opened up about when she was a victim of a sexual assault because it was "important to talk about it".

Zara McDermott fronted a BBC Three documentary about revenge porn earlier this year and is following it up with Uncovering Rape Culture.

The reality star from Essex said she was attacked four years ago by a young man or boy, but passers-by intervened.

She said she had "buried" the memory in the back of her mind.

The former government adviser said: "This assault that happened to me, it's hard to say that it was assault.

"I think that's just me not allowing myself to say it because I got away very much unscathed - and I'm so conscious that so many other women haven't had that.

"So I'm conscious that I don't want it to be a 'woe is me' situation.

"That happened to me and I couldn't really do anything, but I managed to get away pretty unscathed."

She said she felt it was important to now talk about it "because I hadn't really done it yet and I had buried it in the back of my mind".

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McDermott said she was attacked by a young man or boy who appeared to be wearing a school uniform.

She said making her previous film about revenge porn, which she became the victim of while at school, had been a "massive part of healing from it".

"It was almost like therapy doing that doc because I talked about things for the first time that I hadn't talked about in years and thought about what happened properly," she said.

• Zara McDermott: Uncovering Rape Culture airs on BBC Three on 24 November.